Addie and Jackson walked across the stage at Trinity Anglican Seminary’s Commencement on May 16, with their family and friends there to cheer them on.

The day after they received their diplomas, Addie and Jackson were back in the Trophimus Center, getting married.

In addition to her commencement gown, Addie brought her wedding dress to graduation.

“I had to get the dress over there at some point on Saturday,” she said, laughing. “Graduation was a little chaotic, but I had to steam it the day before the ceremony.”

That is the kind of sentence you only get to say when your seminary graduation and wedding happen on the same weekend. But for Addie and Jackson, it makes perfect sense. Trinity is where they first met, studied, discerned their calls to ministry, and found a community that helped prepare them for marriage.

So why not bring the wedding dress to graduation?

A New Relationship

Addie and Jackson first met during New Student Orientation. A few days later, Addie mentioned that she loved going on bike rides.

“If anyone ever wants to go on a bike ride, just let me know,” she said.

Jackson did not miss the opportunity.

“Oh, I would do that,” he said.

Three weeks after they met, they were officially dating.

At Trinity, their relationship grew in ordinary places: classrooms, chapel, lunch, and the library. They shared classes like Church History and Biblical Interpretation.

“Trinity classics,” Jackson said.

“Very romantic,” Addie said with a grin.

The Trinity Community

When Jackson reflects on their relationship, he sees how the Trinity community helped them grow.

“It’s been the community that’s brought us together,” he said. “We didn’t know any of the same people, really, at all. But then we grew together with the Trinity community always being there for us.”

It has also been meaningful to have married couples around as examples.

“We have a number of friends who are married couples that we can just kind of see how they do things,” Jackson said. “And see how they raise their kids and their family, and be friends with people that are kind of role models or mentors for us.”

Ministry Together

Addie and Jackson’s compatibility is not only about bike rides, hikes, and shared study tables in the library. It is also about ministry.

“We both want to be in ministry” Addie said. “Jackson wants to be the pastor of a church and I want to continue working with youth. We were able to do ministry together in seminary, which was a cool thing, and now we get to do it as a married couple."

Two weeks and one day after graduation and the wedding, Addie and Jackson will arrive in Jacksonville, FL, where Jackson will begin a one-year internship.

Why do it all so quickly?

“We didn’t want to wait a day longer than we had to,” Jackson said.

So the day after Commencement, their family, friends, classmates, faculty, and wider church community gathered again. This time, not to watch them receive diplomas, but to witness their marriage and pray for their life and ministry ahead.

Addie and Jackson ask, “Pray for what’s happening after. We’re starting new ministries we’ve never done, in a new environment, a new city and state that we’ve never lived in and barely even visited.”

Pray for Graduates

Please join us in praying for the Trinity Anglican Seminary graduates, like Addie and Jackson, and their future ministries around the globe. These graduates are the future of the church and God’s ministry in the world.

UPCOMING LECTURE

Wednesday, June 10, 2026 at 7:30 p.m.

Trophimus Center, Trinity Anglican Seminary

Should Christians care about their reputation?‍

In this talk, theologian Dr. Matthew Lee Anderson will explore how the glory and name of Jesus Christ shape an ethic of reputation.

Dr. Matthew Lee Anderson is Assistant Professor of Ethics and Theology in the Honors Program at Baylor University, and an associate fellow at the McDonald Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Life at Oxford University.